GEORGE TOWN – Malaysia has been urged to support a proposal by India and South Africa to ensure that the global costs of enforcing the intellectual properties rights are kept at the bare minimum.
This is to ensure that developing nations can treat the Covid-19 pandemic on affordable grounds.
Last October, India and South Africa jointly submitted a resolution to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive the agreement on the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, said Klang MP Charles Santiago.
Due to a limited time to broach the subject in Parliament, Santiago shared with The Vibes, that the waiver concerns loosening up the enforcement on copyrights, industrial designs, and patents in relation to the globally-recognised intellectual property rights, such as for the Covid-19 vaccine and test kits.
“The waiver was to allow developing nations to set aside the requirement for such enforcement during the period of the pandemic.”
It was mooted to ensure that developing countries such as Malaysia, and in the regional context of Asean, will be spared from the big pharmaceutical giants’ monopoly on the vaccine during the health crises.
“The intellectual property system needs a balance between innovation, creativity and safeguarding health.”
It is also to ensure that everybody, regardless of income status can have access to the vaccine, he said.
Citing an example of how huge pharmaceutical firms can control governments, Santiago recalled that in March, this year, Netherlands planned to conduct mass testing for its citizens on Covid-19.
“But the mass testing exercise could not be executed because there was an acute shortage of testing reagents (liquid buffer), which was an element essential to produce the test kits.”
The patent for it was held by Roche Pharma and it initially rejected the request by the Dutch, threatening its citizens and government with sanctions and boycotts.
At the centre is the fear that by sharing the patent, it allows generic producers to come out with cheaper versions for the test kits and eventually the vaccine, said Santiago.
It is therefore important that Malaysia stands besides South Africa and India in wanting the sense of a mutual global prosperity be invoked in ensuring that the vaccine reaches everyone who needs it, from the vulnerable, to the elderly, to the frontliners and children as well as educators, he said.
Meanwhile, Covax a global collaboration involving over 180 countries, including Malaysia, is working with vaccine manufacturers to ensure the equitable distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine once it becomes available. – The Vibes, December 11, 2020.
